Boating Safety (or lack of such) in Honduras

On my vacation to Roatan, Honduras, almost no one wore life jackets and few boats even carried them. This fellow (below) had zero life jackets aboard. When I tried to talk to him about it, he just kept pointing out that this boat was named “Trust Me.” He was almost insulted that I asked.

Trust Me

When I insisted on putting life jackets on my children on the water taxis there, they were only ill-fitting type two jackets. The people operating always tried to talk me out of using them, even for the children, and even when we went fishing off shore, I had to argue to get them (below).

Bad-fitting jackets.

And no one ever slowed down for the (one) no wake buoy. And almost every boat had someone bow riding.

Bow Riding

I don’t know how the waterways of Honduras are not littered with dead people. One thing is for sure, the whole experience made me appreciate the progress that’s been made in boating safety here in the U.S.